got more than he bargained for,” Daniel said. They heard the door open and shut. “Could it be?” Cody said as Sage appeared in the doorway. Astonished, everyone ran to greet her, giving her a hug. “Sage,” Anna said tearfully, holding her tight. “I’m alright,” Sage said. Billy ran into the room and joined in on the happy reunion. Everyone stepped back so Sage could have breathing space. “I was so worried,” Anna said. “I was worried about you,” Sage replied. “How did you...,” she began. “John,” Anna stated.
“He let me drink his blood to recover.” “Thank you, John,” Sage said, smiling. “I didn’t do anything special,” he said. “No, you didn’t,” Anna said sarcastically. John chuckled, seeing the mirth in her eyes. “And you?” Anna asked. “Samuel,” Sage said as he came into the room, quietly staring at everyone, his shirt still half-opened. Anna grinned broadly. “He and Pedro found me,” Sage said. “Samuel can better tell you.” “Pedro and I arrived at the church and heard Sage’s screams,” Samuel started. Everyone stared at him thunderstruck by the resonance of his voice.
Instead of the soft quiet voice they were accustomed to, his voice had taken on the same booming, thunderous sound as Sage’s voice. Sage remained strangely silent. “We knew that we needed to act now,” Samuel continued, ignoring the curious stares. “Pedro went after Pearson, while I found Sage unconscious at the foot of a cross. She had been tortured with her arms and legs nearly raw from holy water being doused on her, her limbs appeared to be disjointed, and she was staked in her shoulder.” “She needed blood right away, so I did what I had to do.” “Just as any one of us would’ve done under the same circumstances,” Anna said pursing her lips. “Thank you, Samuel.” “I don’t know what happened to Pedro after we escaped from the fire,” he said. “We have an idea,” Billy said. “We saw a howling ball of flames fly into the river. It had to have been Pedro, because Cristian had ditched us to find you on his own,” he said staring at Sage. “He was really becoming impossible, Sage,” Anna said. “We’ll talk about that later,” she said telepathically. “There’s other news,” she said. “Apparently, Pearson is dead.” “Then Pedro killed him,” Samuel said. “They were still in battle when I last saw him. Pedro killed him, but then somehow the hunter was still able to strike him before succumbing to his injuries,” Daniel said. “He wasn’t going down without taking Pedro with him.” “Pedro wanted to make up for his betrayal of you,” Anna said. Sage nodded her head solemnly.
“There’s much to tell you,” Anna said. “We had a search for you, and all your subjects went above and beyond their duty to assist. She told Sage of the hunt at the warehouses and of the nurse at the hospital who was helping Rafael. “Where is she now?” Sage asked. “Cristian took her home and I believe that she set him up for a trap.” “How so? Sage asked.
“She was being evasive about where Pearson was, and I kept having this nagging feeling that she was lying or withholding information. She seemed a little too interested in speaking to only Cristian and not the rest of us. Cristian told us that she told him where you were, and Anna had suggested that me, Daniel, Pedro, and Samuel accompany him,” Billy said. “But he didn’t want Samuel to come along,” he said, giving his friend a sympathetic look. “Why didn’t he want you to come with him?” Sage asked Samuel. “It’s a private matter,” he said softly.
“So Daniel and I were supposed to go with him and he ditched us,” Billy said. “How did he ditch you?” Sage asked.
“He told us to wait for him at Central Park while he stopped by the gallery, but he never returned, and we haven’t seen him since.”
“We thought maybe he was the ball of fire that flew into the river, but now we know that couldn’t have been him.” “So we don’t know where Cristian is.”
Sage took a deep breath staring down at the floor. “Something happened to him,” she said. “It was too coincidental,” she sighed, “And I don’t believe in coincidences. I disappear and then he disappears. Pearson’s goal was to destroy me, but Cristian’s disappearing is an entirely different matter.”
“It was intended for him to be isolated from you, because you were never the targets.” “He and I were.”
“What do you mean, Queen V?” Cody asked. “Someone other than just Pearson had much to gain by pulling this off,” Sage said, remembering her struggle with Jillian on the stairwell and the two burly men who wrestled her down to the ground pouring holy water on her, the violent scuffle causing the beads in her hair to be strewn upon the steps.
“You’re talking in riddles again, Sage,” Anna said. “I’m going to change out of these clothes,” Sage said, excusing herself, leaving everyone to ponder what she meant. “Okay, Samuel,” Billy said tapping his shoulder. “What is going on with you and Queen V?” he asked.
Sage stepped into her bedroom, staring at her bed. She could see where Cristian had lain from the imprint on the sheets and her cell phone sitting on the bed. Patting her dress in a panic, she felt the crinkle of the paper she had tucked into her bosom. Pulling it out, relieved, she stared at the old newspaper clipping before placing it back in her drawer and grabbing a change of clothes after she finished bathing. Sitting in the marble bathtub adorned with lit candles, she thought of her ordeal and how she had crawled toward the cross and felt the pull of her limbs stretching from their sockets, and the unspeakable pain she felt. It was as though her body was ablaze inside.
She felt strange. Closing her eyes, she tried to feel her connection to Cristian, but she felt a void. She couldn’t see him or hear him in her mind, which disturbed her. She knew that somehow his mother played a role in whatever happened to him.
Then her thoughts drifted to Samuel’s words to her. She understood that he was just trying to protect himself, but his words still stung.
It reminded her of a conversation she and Anna had once. Anna had remarked that she wasn’t a woman that needed a man to define her. A bit offended by her statement, Sage stated that her desire to marry and have a family was not because she needed a man to define her but because it was a desire she had always had.
Anna told her soothingly that she wasn’t implying that there was anything wrong with wanting companionship, because that is something that most people desire.
“I think you’re one of those people who aren’t meant to live your life in solitude,” she told her. “Say what you will, I believe that there is a mate for everyone,” Sage argued. “Even for stubborn people like yourself,” she teased. She understood Anna’s reluctance and resistance to falling in love, because to give your heart to another is to take the risk of having it broken, which is why she also understood Samuel’s need to protect his heart.
“Love is a gamble,” she thought stepping out of the bathtub.
After changing into a black, lacy blouse and a long skirt and letting her hair hang down her back, Sage rejoined the others in the grand living room while Billy continued to try to get information from Samuel who stared at him shaking his head, when the doorbell rang, startling everyone. “I’ve never heard the doorbell before,” John said. The doorbell rang again. “Who can that be?” Daniel said. Someone began pounding on the door, along with ringing the doorbell incessantly.
“Okay, this has got to stop,” Anna said, leaving to answer the door. Sage heard the door open and Anna yelp as the door slammed shut. “Anna,” she yelled. Anna flew into the living room covering her eyes, screaming. Suddenly, a crucifix appeared in the doorway, held by an extended, sleeved arm of the female.
“Who’s there?” Sage said angrily. Jillian West appeared in the doorway wearing jeans and a suede jacket, holding the crucifix in her hand advancing toward her slowly. The coven, angry, gathered around Sage in a circle leering at her. Jillian held the crucifix up high repelling them, stating, “I serve a higher power greater than the dark power of this world.”
Sage stood firmly, unaffected by the crucifix while the others recoiled except for John. Jillian’s eyes widened, remembering how in the stairwell, Sage couldn’t look at the crucifix without its causing her pain, wondering why it now had no effect on her. “What do you want and why have you barged into my home?” Sage asked in a commanding tone with a strong emphasis on the words “my home.”
“I want to speak to you woman to woman, because this concerns my son.”
“What have you done to Cristian?” Sage asked. “Something any mother would do to save their child,” Jillian said. “I need you to do something for him if you love him,” she said. “I need you to set him free.” All eyes turned to Sage as her eyes began to glisten slightly.